Best Museum

Jepson Center for the Arts

This year, crowds gawped at Nick Cave’s sensational sound suits, lingered over “Kahlil Gibran and the Feminine Divine” (you can see the visual art of The Prophet author Gibran through January 2018), and got hands-on at PULSE Art & Technology Festival. Los Angeles DIY radio station KCHUNG served its first full-scale residency outside of its hometown at The Jepson this winter, and in September, the museum brought back the Tibetan Monks of Drepung Loseling Monastery to create their incredible sand mandala paintings.

In addition to showcasing world-class art and the hottest touring exhibitions, Jepson’s dedication to the community makes it one of our most valuable artistic resources. From the annual “I Have Marks to Make” exhibition, which showcases the work of local citizens with disabilities, to Juneteenth, to hanging the Panhandle Slim signs that Savannahians held in the Women’s March on Washington, we see our community reflected in that big, beautiful, glass and stone structure. And that pairing of global creativity and grassroots growth is the soul of Savannah.